Brocean Eyes
by The Magician's Niece
Summary: MOVED TO WATTPAD DOT COM/BETHREBEKAH
1. When in Berlin

The sun beat down onto her back and the top of her head, and she moved her hand up to feel her heated hair. In front of her lay the most famous view of her favourite city in the world; the Brandenburg Gate, and behind her, along the busy road they called Ebertstraβe, cruised cyclists weaving between tour buses and cars. Tourists hurried across the road during brief quells in the traffic and it seemed the entire world was gazing up at the magnificent centrepiece of Berlin as she was doing now. No matter how many times she visited this beautiful city, she could not get enough of it, and now it was the end of another week spent marvelling and revelling in German culture, and by this time tomorrow she would be back in England. Her friends were shopping on the KuDamm and she had a habit on days like this of wandering around the centre of the city one final time on her own, starting at the Brandenburg Gate. It was the end of August and the summer days were holding out, the sun pouring down on the sweltering crowded streets, and as she passed through the Brandenburg Gate, a sweet moment of cool shade gave her some relief before she came out into the Pariser Platz. Just before she turned left onto Luisenstraβe, she turned back for one more look at the gate. That's when she saw him.

He was stood with his back to her, looking up at the gate, but she knew who he was. She'd know him anywhere. Just the way he stood, as if he wasn't quite comfortable with his own height yet and his shoulders hunched ever so slightly, wearing his grey tank top which showed off his muscular arms, skinny jeans and shoes. Those shoes gave it all away, those Onitsuika Tigers. His dark brown hair was gleaming in the mid-afternoon sun, and when he turned his head, there was no doubting that profile. He was there, just a few meters from her, the celebrity love of her life; Adam Young.

She didn't really know what to do. Walking over and speaking to him would be the obvious action to take, but then again he was just so perfect that she was sure she'd melt before any sense of vague normality was reached in any possible exchange between them. She'd seen him this close before, even closer than this at concerts; but it's dark in concert venues, and he's untouchable as long as he's on the stage and you're behind the barrier. She knew he'd be in Berlin due to his tour dates, but she hadn't expected to meet him because the show wasn't until her day of departure, and she hadn't foreseen him spending two days in the city. Yet, here he was and so was she, so, mustering up all the courage she could draw, she walked towards him.

As each step brought her closer to Adam, she started wondering whether this was such a good idea; these people want their privacy, don't they? So why not give it to him? What if he's in a bad mood today and doesn't want to talk to anyone? What if he thinks I'm stupid or ugly or naïve? But she was too near to run from it all now. The crew members in close range had already spotted her and were smiling to themselves at the familiar view of a fan timidly sidling up to Adam and asking for a photo or signature or both. A few seconds later he was turning to face her, wondering what all his band members were sniggering at, and for the first time in her life, Adam Young's eyes were for her and her only.

She wasn't entirely sure what the correct thing to do is when the moment you've been dreaming about all your life happens, but the largest of smiles was appearing on her face, and she could see he was mirroring her, looking down on her with those deep excitable brown eyes. He wasn't much taller than her, and at such a close distance it was hard to believe anyone that attractive could exist, but he did and here he was, waiting for her to say something.

"It's Adam, right?" she sounded like such an idiot, of course it was Adam. He chuckled one of those deep throaty chuckles.

"Yes, Adam Young. And you are?"

"Sophie," I swallowed hard, my mouth was getting drier by the second, "but most people call me Izzy"

He chuckled harder this time. "How do you manage to get Izzy from Sophie?"

"Well someone introduced me to a not-very-famous band member and he thought I was called I_zzy_ so it stuck. It was a very loud gig venue." I added onto the end when I saw Adam's look of amusement.

"Okay then, so which do you prefer? What do I call you?"

"Izzy, I guess. I've almost forgotten my real name altogether"

"Oh. I was hoping you'd say Sophie. I prefer Sophie." As soon as he'd said this, he looked as if he wished he'd never said anything, so she thought she'd be nice to him. He was Adam Young after all.

"Well then, call me Sophie"

He smiled and they proceeded with the usual autographs and photos. She also managed the same with Laura Musten, Daniel Jorgensen and Breanne Düren after small embarrassments on her part, and eventually there was nothing else left to say but goodbye.

"Well," she said, turning to Adam one last time, "it was lovely to meet you, all of you. I'm going to your concert in Birmingham, in England, in a week so I guess I'll see you there." she wasn't expecting to meet him again; she'd never met Adam at a concert even though she'd been to a few in her lifetime. No matter how many hours she waited around the venue for, he just never seemed to appear.

"Oh, so you're from England?" he moved his hand up to his forehead, and looked for all the world as if he'd found the answer to the meaning of life itself, "I must say I was wondering whether you were from around here or not because of your accent, but I guess you're as much of a tourist here as I am?"

"Yeah but not quite half as famous," she joked, before adding, "I wish I wasn't such a tourist here if I'm honest. Berlin has to be my favourite city in the world."

He laughed ever so slightly "I understand where you're coming from; the German culture is wonderful."

"Well you sure love to tweet in the language" she joked.

They both laughed awkwardly, because she'd let slip how closely she paid attention to what he did, and eventually parted ways.

She forgot about her walk around the city and boarded the first bus possible to the KaDeWe where she knew her friends would be. Sophie hurriedly and excitedly told them all about her meeting with Adam, and Violet, who always accompanied Sophie to Owl City concerts, was bordering on distraught that she hadn't met him too.

"Honestly Izzy, I'm going to have to stick to your side at all times if you insist on meeting Adam Young in secret every time I turn my back on you" she sighed light-heartedly.

After arriving back at their hotel later than they'd planned and starting packing for their departure the next day, the four girls rolled in between their crisp, white sheets and were soon unconscious to the world. Even Sophie too, after re-living the events of the day in her head a few times over, attempting and failing to leave out how she almost hit Daniel across the face because she didn't know he was behind her, fell asleep.

That was only the first meeting between Adam Young and Sophie Mason.


	2. Returning Home

The crew had gone back to the tour bus, and Adam Young was almost ready to follow suit. He looked back out over the river which snaked its way through the capital of Germany and breathed in the city air. He wasn't too good at the whole city thing with so many people around and so little places of solitude to be sought out, but he was on tour and that was all that mattered. He never felt more alive than when he was behind a microphone with a guitar strapped over his shoulder or when his fingers were moving gracefully over a keyboard. He rested his hand on the railing in front of him and tapped his fingertips on the metal, the hard skin from hours of being pressed against guitar strings making a ringing sound.

He thought back over the events of the day. It was always fun meeting fans, even if he wasn't in the mood for it, because he knew how they felt. He'd met his fair amount of celebrity inspirations in his life: Taylor Swift, Mark Hoppus, the list went on. What he could never get his head around was that someone could feel as excited about meeting him. He was just Adam after all, just a shy boy from a small town in Minnesota who happened to get a number one hit in 28 countries. Twenty-eight. He shook his head; he didn't even know there were 28 countries out there.

A faint laugh escaped his lips as he remembered the conversation he'd had with the fan today. Sophie. Yes, that was her name. Sophie but most people call her Izzy. She'd made him laugh; almost beheading Dan and scaring Bre out of her wits when a pen was brought dangerously close to her dress. He was so grateful for people like her.

He realised he should probably get back inside the tour bus so they could park for the night and before he upset the bus drivers; it didn't matter how famous you were, if they didn't get their sleep your life wasn't worth living for the rest of the tour. He shook his head as he remembered one driver they'd had who stole his socks one by one until he had to go begging and pleading for them back. It was all in good humour but Adam would rather avoid it.

Sophie took one last look back at Berlin, her favourite city in the world, before walking through the automatic doors of Schönefield Airport. Once she arrived back in England, there was the drive from Liverpool down to her home in Shropshire and then…. nothing. She was dreading waking up tomorrow, she knew the feeling well; of opening her eyes to see the all too familiar yellow walls of her bedroom instead of the peeling paint of a Berlin hotel and feeling her heart sink as she remembered she was back in good old Britain where she could understand every sign post and knew what each bend of the road would bring. She'd visited Berlin for the first time when she was only thirteen years old on a school trip which had coincided with the Festival of Lights. The city was so beautiful that she had fallen in love instantly and took the opportunity to visit again and again whenever she could.

Smiling, she remembered her new reason for loving the capital of Germany; Adam Young. She was one of those people who, when their dreams come true, don't let it sink in for weeks, possibly even years, maybe never. She was certain that if she was any other fan of his, she would have been screaming and crying for at least twelve hours by now, but when she thought about it, it just felt like a dream. Maybe it had been a dream, she'd dreamt about meeting Adam so many times. She went to check the time on her phone and was caught off guard by her wallpaper; Adam Young, as usual, but next to him stood a girl. She was a couple of inches shorter than him with wide blue eyes, and where the side of her head brushed his, there was no differentiating between where his hair ended and hers started. It wasn't a dream, then.

"In your own little world again, eh?" Violet nudged Sophie and snapped her back into reality, "We'll miss the flight at this rate."

Four hours later, they touched down in Liverpool. In their descent, they had flown through cloud upon endless cloud of varying shades of grey, and now they were back in cold, wet Britain. They all ran for the bus which would take them back to the airport, vainly trying not to become soaked to the skin in the torrential downpour.

Packed in the vehicle with wet clothes rubbing against her arms and legs, Sophie wasn't feeling at her best. She thought ahead to the weeks she faced; there was only two weeks left of summer and then it was back to school and waking up at 7am every morning. At least she had Owl City to look forward to next week, but after that post-concert depression would hit and the prospect of school would seem even more unbearable.

She suddenly realised her phone's internet access was once again available to her now she was back in England, so she logged into Twitter as the bus bumped across the tarmac of the runway. After replying to the mentions she'd received whilst being away, she typed in Adam's username to check what she'd missed. His last tweet had only been sent five minutes ago and read 'Getting ready for the show tonight. Berlin, it's about to drop in yo face #stoked'. She laughed and quickly regretted it due to the number of faces that turned towards her.

She felt the need to reply, so brought up a new tweet and typed ' owlcity it was lovely meeting you yesterday. Apologise again to Daniel for me if you get the chance! Have a great show tonight.' If he saw it, at least he'd know who she was.

A few minutes later, thousands of miles away across the North Sea in his dressing room sat Adam Young on his laptop. He was scrolling through Tumblr, searching for random tags and saving any photos he found interesting. After searching the 'Adam Young' tag and seeing that no new posts had been added since he last checked, he moved over to Twitter to check his mentions. A couple of German fans had tweeted him, yelling about how excited they were, and there were the usual '#np Fireflies by owlcity' tweets, but one caught his eye. It was from the girl he'd met yesterday, and it made him smile. He brought up a reply box and stared at the flashing line, trying to figure out what to say. He'd pretty much grasped the right words when his dressing room door flung open and Casey appeared in the doorframe.

"Adam, we need you a sec."

Adam shut his laptop and followed Casey out of the room, completely forgetting the English girl with the wide blue eyes.


	3. Concerts

The show was over. The final note played and the lights blazed with Adam shouting "thank you and good night!"

The crowd screamed as the band held hands in a row and bowed before walking off stage. It was the end.

Adam staggered up to the green room and collapsed on the sofa in a heap, kicking his shoes off and unbuttoning his shirt to reveal more of his vest underneath.

"Woah Adam, there's ladies around!" Daniel joked as he punched his friend lightly on the shoulder.

Adam batted back but missed and almost fell to the floor, "it was so hot out there. I couldn't believe it!"

"Tell me about it," Dan mumbled, also stripping down to his base layer, "wanna get some air?"

The two men swung out of a fire escape and jogged down a flight of stone steps before choosing a random direction to head in.

Daniel and Adam were very familiar with each other. A mutual silence was understood on their frequent post-show strolls unless Adam spoke first, making them pleasant and calming after just over two hours of creating the best music they possibly could in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of hopeful, excited fans. Adam loved being on stage; the music pulsing through him, the exhilaration, the adrenaline – it was the most perfect feeling in the world.

After they had circled a small residential block once or twice and were coming within a close range of the tour bus, Adam finally spoke.

"Quite a few waiting by the bus tonight, eh?" he turned to Dan with a twinkle in his eye.

"Yees," Daniel drew the word out, trying to interpret Adam's meaning, "why, are you feeling sociable?"

"Sort of," he shrugged, "more like a laugh."

The taller man chuckled and slung his arm around his friend's shoulders, "well come on then, we don't have all night."

Ten minutes later, two male figures in thick winter coats, hoodies and sunglasses could be seen sauntering towards the people crowded around the Owl City tour bus. No one noticed them approaching as they were all waiting for a figure to emerge from the back door of the venue and anyone coming from the opposite direction must be just another fan. The two men had now reached the fringes of the crowd and prepared themselves.

"NO giggling" Adam mouthed to Dan who just rolled his eyes and flung his arms around the shoulders of a couple of fans in front of him.

Adam copied his actions, throwing his around a pair of teenage girls in denim shorts, tights and shirts from the merch stand.

"Is he here?" Adam asked breathlessly in his best English accent, "where? Where?"

The girls had jumped when he first stuck his head between theirs and hadn't recognized him in his sunglasses and the hood which covered his hair completely so they stared at him blankly, looking positively terrified at this stranger. This lasted a few seconds before Adam pushed through the middle of them and repeated his lines to a couple who were intertwined in an attempt to keep warm against the chilly mid-September air. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Daniel doing the same and had to stifle a laugh as they worked their way towards the tour bus, tapping people on the shoulder, shouting about Adam Young and had anyone seen him yet?

By the time the two men had reached the red metal of the tour bus, every eye in the crowd was on them. People had begun to understand what was happening but no one said anything for at least a minute.

Eventually a voice shouted, "You're Adam Young!" and a couple of screams followed.

"I-I'm Adam Young?" the man in question stammered in mock horror, turning to Daniel, "Dan, did you know I'm Adam Young?"

More screams erupted as both men removed their hoods and glasses, cameras were flashing and the fans closest to Adam were holding out album covers and tickets, ready to be signed. Both men roared with laughter and high-fived before turning to the crowd; a couple of them wanted photos with Daniel whilst Adam brought out his Sharpie pens and began scribbling his signature on anything and everything that was shoved into his hands.

They were only halfway through the groups of people when the attention of those closest to the venue back-door was diverted. Adam craned his neck, peering over heads and shoulders to work out what was going on.

Running towards them was one of the most beautiful women he knew; her long, dark hair was flying behind her and she was still wearing her sequined dress from the show which changed colours as her body moved at different angles against the light. She was the closest thing he had to a sister: Breanne Duren.

"Adam?" she shouted frantically. She hadn't seen him, "Adam? Daniel?"

He hurriedly finished signing the All Things Bright and Beautiful cover he still held in his hand and pushed through the bodies between him and Bre, apologising as he went. Something was wrong, he could tell by the lines between her eyebrows; he'd seen it before when she couldn't quite get a note right in the studio, except this time it was something serious.

Dan soon caught on to what was happening and followed Adam. Breanne finally spotted them and even the crowd understood and let the two men pass with ease.

"It's Sarah," Bre breathed as soon as they were within earshot of her normal speaking voice, "come on, quickly"

Sarah. Sarah was the singer of one of Owl City's support acts for the UK tour: Long Lost Sun. Adam couldn't imagine what might have happened to her but he suspected the worst. Bre started running to the building with Dan keeping her pace and Adam turned back briefly to see the multitudes of faces staring wistfully at him.

"I'm so sorry you guys, something's happened. I love you all and you're the best, thanks for ruling my life!" he shouted before following his band mates.

Adam had almost reached the steps leading to the back door when he felt something warm run into his chest. A girl.

"Woah, what sorry. Didn't see you there" Taking a step back, slightly winded, he looked her up and down quickly. Not much shorter than him, brunette hair, probably in her late teens, wearing an I AM shirt under her open coat. None of this surprised Adam; she was a typical fan on all levels… except for one thing. Her eyes.

She peered up at him from under her sweeping fringe, and he was immediately lost. They were a deep Sapphire colour, speckled with splashes of brown and sparkling in the light from the streetlamps. He knew those eyes from somewhere, somewhere far away in the back of his memory, somewhere that wasn't here. Not here in this cold, damp, bleak city with its terrible architecture but somewhere else, somewhere warm, somewhere majestic, somewhere beautiful.

She spoke, "I'm so sorry Adam, I didn't see you, I…" she trailed off and before he knew it, she was gone, those blue eyes were gone and light was pouring down the steps from the open door to his left, interrupted by Daniel's figure.

"Adam for _goodness sake_ what's taking you so_ long_?"

What felt like hours later, Adam finally lay down on his tour bus bunk, laptop in hand. It had only taken them half an hour to sort out the Sarah issue, but it could just as easily have been a lifetime.

She'd managed to knock herself out cold on a low lying beam above a doorway. Hannah had found her and immediately yelled for someone to fetch an ambulance. Of course, that someone forgot where they were and attempted a 911 call which inevitably failed. By the time Adam arrived at the scene, Sarah was starting to come around and the First Aid team was onto it. The rest of the time was a blur as he tried to sort everyone else out; he needed someone to fill in for Long Lost Sun as a support act because Sarah wouldn't be able to perform, not after this. He couldn't just leave a gap, he knew how far some of his fans travelled to get to shows and how long some of them had to save up for; he wanted them to have the best concert experience possible.

There was only really one obvious solution: Bre. Adam knew how blessed he was to have such a talented team of people with him, and at moments like these he was especially grateful because he could always fall back on them, always rely on their support.

Aside from that, Adam hadn't really been needed and ended up sitting, redundant, in a corner, haunted by those blue eyes. Now, he opened up his laptop, logged into Twitter and wrote out an after-show message.

"Birmingham, you were so wonderful to me tonight. So blessed and honored to spend the evening with you. God bless you."

Sophie was almost home. The concert had been wonderful, everything she could have ever dreamt of and all she wanted was to replay the evening over again and again. However, tomorrow was another day and another day meant Adam Young was in another city, another show, moving further away. Violet was sat in the passenger seat beside her and picked up Sophie's phone when it vibrated.

"Awe, Adam tweeted about tonight," Violet informed her, reading Sophie's automatic text alert.

"Show me, what did he say?"

"You can't have the phone, you're driving! I'll read it out to you."

He'd written a lovely tweet and it made Sophie wish she hadn't run off when he'd suddenly appeared as she walked around a corner. She wasn't even looking for him, just for her car, and then there he was and she'd run straight into his chest. It was hard to see in the lamp light from the street but could she dare to believe that he'd recognised her?

Sophie shook her head and pressed the acceleration pedal harder. She had such ridiculous ideas sometimes.

"Izzy he tweeted again," Vi paused to read the message, "oh my gosh, Izz it's about you."

"No it's not, what are you on about? How could he possibly have tweeted about me?" her heart was in her mouth but she knew it was stupid. The probability that Adam would care about or even remember a random girl who he'd literally bumped into was incredibly low.

"Hashtag-that-awkward-moment," Violet quoted, "when the girl with the blue eyes knows what I did every summer since I was six years old."  
"Okay, in what universe is that about me?"  
"You have blue eyes and you bumped into him tonight. Didn't you say he stared at you for a couple of seconds?"  
"Yes, because I knocked the breath out of him and he probably didn't understand what on earth was happening."

"I still think it's about you, Izzy."

Sophie sighed and just kept driving. She wanted it to be about her so badly but she'd rather just make herself believe it wasn't. That way she wouldn't be disappointed which was unavoidable. Adam was like that, he'd form a crush on an 'attractive female' for a night and the next night it was someone else. Not that she thought he'd ever even have a tiny, immature crush on her anyway.

Adam could have kicked himself, he'd done it again, he'd tweeted without thinking. Deleting the message quickly, he wrote out an apology to everyone by the tour bus that night and closed the laptop. Chances were the girl with the blue eyes had him on text alert and would definitely see her tweet. He wondered if she knew it was about her. Maybe time would tell.


	4. It Doesn't Matter

Sunlight poured through the window as Sophie's bodily needs dragged her from sleep and back into the real world. She was starving. The alarm clock read 6.30am and she rolled over, groaning and trying to ignore the empty pain in her stomach. Five minutes later she decided it was futile and padded downstairs in her pajamas. The stone floor of the kitchen was freezing against the soles of her bare feet and she blundered around the kitchen in her sleepy state, trying to find the bread.

She was on holiday with her family in Spain, and even though this was their last day she was still unaware of where anything was. Eventually Sophie sourced the bread, butter and a plate and began spreading, humming to herself in her own little world. A few seconds later she found herself dancing around the room, butter-covered knife still in hand, singing at the top of her lungs.

"YOUU TEAR ME UP WHEN YOU SAY YOU WANNA TAKE IT ALL AWAY, TAKE IT ALL AWA-"

Suddenly she realised what the time was and that her family were still sleeping so, sighing, she dropped the knife in the sink and started filling her empty stomach. Today was the day Owl City played a show in London, and she was out of the country.

After a failed attempt at sleeping once more, she rummaged through her bags and found her laptop. Their villa had WiFi, thank goodness, and Tumblr was awaiting her as always. None of her friends back home were awake but she helped herself to more than a daily dose of videos from Adam's show in the Netherlands the night before. New photos and a ton of new posts in the Adam-Young-tag were always welcome in her life, and on that particular morning there was a large number of them.

He was barely recognisable as the guy she'd met in Berlin a year ago, or so she thought. His hair had grown and then been cut, his cheekbones were more pronounced and he'd obviously been working out whilst writing yet another album. His awkwardness had literally dropped away from him and he'd invested in a whole new wardrobe.

The last year had been rather uneventful; school, exams, stress, friends, shopping. Nothing out of the ordinary and no words from Adam aimed directly at her, no tweets to her and no tweets about the girl with the blue eyes. Eventually Violet had given up and let Sophie believe what she wanted to about which girl he meant that night, but there was still a niggling thought in the back of her mind.

What if she was the girl Adam meant?

Even if she was, it didn't matter because he no longer cared. No one ever remembered the girl with the blue eyes.


	5. Never Again

_I apologise for the year-long hiatus; I've been incredibly busy but I should now be updating more regularly. Also, very sorry for the shortness of this chapter but I just wanted to get something back up. Expect more soon._

- _Beth_

* * *

It was a cloudy day in mid-May as Sophie climbed the last few metres to the top of the hill; she was absolutely exhausted. The Wrekin rose above the generally flat farming land of Shropshire: one of England's few rural counties, and being within walking distance of Sophie's house, she often escaped there after a particularly stressful week.

From the top, her town was spread out like a map, and on the Western horizon, she could just about see where the far-off Shropshire Hills became the Welsh Mountains at the border. The song being fed into her ears from her iPod changed, snapping Sophie out of the daydream running through her head; she was making her way through the new Carinthia album, and although she loved it, it brought with it innumerable waves of nostalgia. Sitting on a nearby rock and pulling her cardigan tightly around her, she cast her mind back to the previous October when Adam Young had hopped on an airplane with his crew and played a few UK shows. Along with some of her friends, she had followed them around England and attended a large majority of the shows; it had been one of the best weeks of her life. They had waited hours in the cold together, sung together, danced together, met the live band together, and felt the same sinking feeling when it was over and they all had to say goodbye during the early hours of Halloween knowing this wouldn't come around again for a long time. Of course, Adam barely came out to meet anyone, but they'd had a great time hanging out with Daniel and Jasper.

She wondered how Adam was doing now. There had been a time in her life when he was her everything; she had known almost everything there was to know as a fan about his life and she'd wanted nothing more than for him to notice her, but those days were over. Since that tour, life had been getting more and more serious; she was growing up, and her love of musicians now rarely grew beyond the melodies and rhymes they created. It had been fun, but she was glad it was over now; you couldn't love someone who barely knew you existed, if at all. She'd always support and love Adam Young, but she would never let herself become infatuated with him again. Never again.

Scrambling off the rock, Sophie made her way back up to the trig-point, intending to begin her half-hour descent of the Wrekin, yet she had barely walked two steps when she heard a cough from behind her. As she hesitated, it was followed by a distinctly American voice, 'E-excuse me?'


	6. Crossing Borders

Adam Young wasn't quite sure how he'd reached this point in his life; it was something he'd always been afraid of, and now it had brought everything as he knew it to a halt. He had lost the ability to write music. It was the only thing he could do in the world, and it had been taken away from him.

Once The Midsummer Station tour had finished, he'd been so excited about spending more time playing around with different genres and adding different elements into his music. He toured with Maroon 5, which meant he could take a backseat and get some inspiration from other musicians instead of having to be the main man. After that, he was able to do whatever he liked; so he experimented with every type of music he could think of, explored every vein of inspiration, and wrote a million melodies for each lyric that wouldn't stop floating through his mind. Now, however, Adam was at a dead end. He had found so many places he could take his music, that he had no idea where to begin writing a new album, thus starting the break down. His imagination stopped churning out melodies and became wild to the point where even he couldn't understand it. He'd tweet the strange sentences and scenarios which flew through his head in the vague hope that he could read them back and be inspired, but all he discovered through this was his slow descent into madness.

So, he started leaving the house more. He drove north; he'd always driven north to be inspired. North meant the twin cities and Duluth and everything his beautiful state had to offer, and he would return back to his basement overflowing with ideas; but not this time. This time, he stayed away from home all night, stalking the streets of places even he had never visited before, yet still he had nothing. Adam's next decision was to drive south. He crossed the state line into Iowa and spent hours exploring places which were so close to him, yet he'd never even thought of discovering. That was when it hit him; he needed to get away. He didn't just need to cross state lines; he needed to cross borders, to cross oceans. He didn't even need a tour where the people were all the same with a different city each day; he needed a whole new country with new people and a completely different culture. He needed a new lifestyle.

When Adam finally arrived home, there was already a car in the driveway and a light on in the living room. Daniel was in. Daniel Jorgensen was one of his best friends, and he often dropped around without warning, letting himself in with the key Adam had given him years ago because he didn't like leaving the basement in the middle of writing. The door was unlocked, and Adam put on a falsetto voice to announce his return, 'Honey, I'm home!'  
'Du-u-u-de!' Daniel appeared from the kitchen in nothing but a towel and gave Adam a quick hug before noticing the restless, stressed-out look in his eyes, 'I'm going to put some clothes on. You get yourself a drink then we'll talk, okay?'  
Adam nodded and dragged himself over to the kettle as Dan bounded up the stairs. The kitchen had been tidied, along with the rest of the house while he had been gone, and he smiled to himself knowing that he had the best friends in the world. Dan was always there for him when he needed someone, and knew him inside out after all the months they'd spent touring together. Breanne was the same, she was like the sister he'd never had, although he hadn't seen her much lately…  
'Have you heard much from Bre since the last show?' Adam asked as Daniel reappeared.  
'Nah, she's probably enjoying being away from us and spending time with that boyfriend of hers,' Dan winked, 'so come on then man, what's up?'

Adam told him everything. How he couldn't write any more, how he'd driven all over the state and further to get inspiration yet still had nothing, and how he needed to get away.  
'Woah, I mean, I knew something was up, but I didn't know things had got this bad for you,' Dan patted his friend on the shoulder.  
'Is that why you came round?'  
'Well… yeah. I had a new amp problem as a cover-up though,' he smiled, 'I guess you could stay with some of my relatives in Austria for a bit, although they all speak German there.'  
'German, I can do German. It's all "geil", right?' both men laughed, but Adam was beginning to wonder if this really was the only way left to even begin writing a new album. Flying to another country with a completely new language seemed slightly extreme, bordering on absolute madness.

After a few minutes, Daniel jumped suddenly, 'I've got it! My friends in England, you could stay with them! I'm sure they'd be more than happy to have you, and you wouldn't have to take any instruments either. It's perfect!'  
'They're musicians then?'  
'Yeah, I stayed with them once - they live out in the countryside somewhere - and I was so inspired that I just had to write, so they let me use their music room.'  
'Sounds absolutely perfect, do you think I could?' Adam was sparked with a sense of adventure and wanderlust just hearing about this possibility. He could explore the English countryside, something he'd never been able to do in the short periods of time he'd spent there before, and write about everything he saw. He could find confidence in himself and speak to strangers, find out about their lives, and write about them. He could immerse himself in English culture, eat the food, visit the history, and write about it. Suddenly, the world was his oyster once more.  
Dan snapped him out of his daydream, 'I'm certain you could. Don't worry, I'll email them for you and sort everything. You just relax and don't worry about it one little bit.'

A month later, everything was sorted, and Adam was stood in departures at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport clutching his iPhone in one hand and boarding pass in the other. In under twelve hours' time, he would be in England after a short stop in Paris to change 'planes. He was landing in Birmingham, which was a city he had previously played shows in; as he remembered it, an exciting place with terrible architecture. From there, he had a ticket to take a train from Birmingham International to a small town in the county of Shropshire, called Shrewsbury, where Daniel's friends would pick him up and drive him to their house. The situation had turned out perfectly; the day after Adam arrived, his hosts were leaving for a two-week holiday, and were more than happy to let him house-sit for them provided they met him first. As he stepped out of the railway station at Shrewsbury and into blinding sunlight, Adam's eyes adjusted to show him the quaintest little square he'd ever seen. It was obviously now a taxi pick-up circuit, but it was beautifully designed with a cobbled road and pavement, what looked like an ancient town or castle wall rising to his left, and an old clock tower standing on the roof of the train station, chiming out the hour. This was a side of England he'd never seen before, and he fell in love with it instantly.

Mr and Mrs Lane soon found him, and graciously took his luggage back to their car without hearing another word about it. They were a lovely middle-aged couple who had been married for around ten years, and they warmed to Adam almost instantly. He soon found out that their home was nowhere near Shrewsbury, and was, in fact, in the southern part of a town called Telford, which he remembered passing through on the train ride. They had been visiting friends in Shrewsbury, and hoped he hadn't minded travelling the extra few miles, which, of course, he hadn't; just as he did for the entire car journey, he had spent the train ride staring out of the window at the endless fields which flew past, marvelling at the beauty of the English countryside and letting his mind wander. Adam couldn't shake the image of picturesque Shrewsbury, and decided that it would be his first port of call in his quest to explore Shropshire; or, that was, until he saw the Wrekin. They were driving along a road which had been cut straight through a large mound of reddish rock, when a large hill came into view. One could have mistaken it for a flat-topped mountain if it had been surrounded by others its' size, however it was only directly followed by a slightly smaller hill and covered with greenery. Mrs Lane must have seen the look of wonder on Adam's face, as she smiled and swivelled around in her front seat to talk to him.  
'That's the Wrekin, honey; we live just the other side of it. It's quite something, isn't it?'  
'You bet!' Adam breathed, 'can you climb it?'  
'Sure you can, it's relatively easy. I'll draw you a map of how to get to the bottom from our house later, I'd really recommend a stroll up there.'

Adam barely remembered anything from that point onwards; he was completely exhausted from the travel, and when he woke to the afternoon sunshine the next day, he only vaguely recalled being sent to bed with a steaming mug of tea, which was still on his bedside table, now cold. Knocking the alarm clock so that it faced him, Adam groaned as he saw the red numbers winking 3:00pm at him. He knew from experience that the best way to beat jetlag was to go about life as normal, so he quickly kicked himself out of bed and into the shower, but not before he'd allowed himself a quick peek out of the window at the Wrekin. Climbing it was his aim for the day. In the kitchen, he found numerous notes left by Mrs Lane concerning bus times, how to get to the nearest shops, how to get to Telford town centre, and the most important one: a hand-drawn map telling him how to get to the bottom of the Wrekin, which he followed after quickly eating a mid-afternoon snack and throwing a set of t-shirts and hoodies on.

The bottom of the hill was relatively easy to find, and he started on his way up. The track seemed quite steep to begin with, but levelled out occasionally, and he noticed that shallow steps had been added in places to make the climb easier. The area was rather deserted, save a few determined runners or cyclists who passed him in the opposite direction. Before he knew it, Adam was faced with a fork in the footpath; one track continued at the same height as he was stood, and the other carried on winding upwards, which he decided to follow. Presently, he came to a small white cottage surrounded by a fence, and decided to sit and rest for a while, as he could see another fork in the track ahead of him, and was feeling increasingly warmer from the exertion of the climb inside his collection of hoodies. He could not believe the beauty around him; there were countless birds singing in the thick clusters of trees, and although the day was moving on into early evening, the sun still shone strongly through the blanket of green overhead. Eventually, he decided to finish the climb, and spotting a signpost on the other side of a stile, climbing over to see if it would help him reach the top of the hill. However, this was not necessarily the case. One sign pointed ahead, and read 'This Way', whilst another pointed back the way he had come, reading 'That Way'. The one which puzzled Adam the most was the sign pointing to his left, which read 'The Other Way', and after a few moments of deliberation, he decided to follow the path in this direction. At some point along his way, Adam realised how cold it had become, and stopped to put the hoodie that he had removed earlier back on. Looking around him, he realised that he had no idea where he was, and wondered if he'd completely missed the top altogether; yet no sooner had he thought this, he was passed by a young woman travelling in the opposite direction. She was about as tall as his shoulder, and her long brunette hair whipped about her head in the wind as she walked. Adam knew he was terrible at speaking to strangers, he always had been, but this strange country and its clear air had begun its magic on him, and he was suddenly filled with a sense of confidence and ability which he knew he had to use. Mustering this all together, he formed two tiny words,

'E-excuse me?'


	7. Moving IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ

Dear all of the wonderful people who read this fanfic,

I have been having problems with , as apparently I am violating their T&Cs by writing about real people (Adam Young etc.)

If you want to continue reading this, I have moved it over to wattpad dot com/user/bethrebekah

Thank you so much for reading my stuff, I appreciate it so so much. Very sorry about the move,

Beth x

P.S. very sorry about the multiple emails concerning this 'chapter', they would let me add the link in in an understandable way


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